Natural gas is a naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, other hydrocarbons, and impurities. When extracted, natural gas may be accompanied by water, hydrocarbons having various properties, carbon dioxide, or debris from drilling a well. Natural gas is generally found in deep underground rock formations. One of the ways to extract natural gas from these rock formations includes horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracing.” Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping fluid and sand under pressure through a wellbore into a rock formation. Pressure is then removed, leaving sand in the rock formation and allowing natural gas to escape through the wellbore, where the natural gas can be captured and used. However, as natural gas escapes from the rock formation, some of the sand or other particulate matter flows with natural gas through the wellbore to the surface. This sand or particulate matter can cause problems, including wear and tear or plugging of production equipment or pipelines.
Devices commonly known as “sand separators” are used to separate this sand or particulate matter from natural gas. Sand separators usually are comprised of a container capable of holding gas or fluid under high pressure with an inlet port for accepting natural gas directly or indirectly from the wellbore, an area where sand or particulate matter is deposited, and an outlet port where natural gas exits from the sand separator. However, known sand separators do not remove all sand or particulate matter. As a result, there has been a need for an improved sand separator that allows for more efficient and reliable separation of sand or particulate matter from natural gas.